South Koreans watch activities of Children’s Parliament

VARANASI: For Lee Hye In (21), a journalist from South Korea, watching the unique electoral process of Children's Parliament on Tuesday made her ponder over her own responsibilities towards her country and the world. "These children have good leadership qualities and they can fight for their rights and stand up for the injustice done to any of their friends,” she said.Lee was on a four-day visit to the city with around 45 other volunteers of Asian Bridge and students of Gandhian School in South Korea to witness the activities of the Children's Parliament initiated by a local NGO Vishal Bharat Sansthan.
Kang Byung Soo, a professor of Gandhi School, South Korea, said: "Watching the enthusiasm of the children and their trust in the democracy, we will chalk out plan for a similar children's parliament in our country where both the parliament's can work strongly on issues related to children and raise voice against their respective governments.”
The volunteers of Asian Bridge revealed that there are hundreds of children associated with the organisation and they would learn the electoral process to organise elections for the children's parliament in Philippines and South Korea.
According to Lee Hany Soon, manager, Asian Bridge, South Korea, it was great to see children contesting the elections and walking with party symbol and knocking the doors of their neighbours, friends and relatives to gather support for themselves.
According to VBS president Rajeev Srivastava, volunteers and students from South Korea stayed with children for four days and participated in the campaigning and nomination process. They also volunteered in various programmes of the organisation.Meanwhile, the nomination process of the Children's Parliament of VBS began with fanfare amid sound of drums and dhols at Sigra on Tuesday. As many as 19 candidates filed their nominations for the post of speaker, whereas a total of nine children's parties filled the nomination forms. Candidates also revealed their properties and money deposited at children's bank on the occasion.
The Children's Parliament follows the same electoral process which is applicable in other elections of the country. There are six seats for the member of parliaments, who would represent six areas. These are ghats, Jaitpura, central Varanasi, trans-Varuna, trans-Asi and rural areas.
Apart from that, there is a seat for the speaker. Issues education status of poor children, food, environment, safety, child trafficking, corporal punishment, child rights, condition of parks, power and roads of the city would be priorities of most of the candidates.
The idea of Children's Parliament surfaced in 2008, when as many as 1,000 child voters registered to be involved in the electoral process, which increased to 3,626 in 2010. The elections this year will be held on July 6. As many as 10,391 child voters would cast their vote.